Arts or Artist District?

The theft of what may be the last "Artist District" sign has brought out the expected question always heard from visitors and incoming residents who are curious as to why a neighborhood of distinctive character has a second name. The sign, now missing from the side of Bloom’s General Store for a week, was an isolated and tagged loner carrying a name that remains in the collective memory of paperwork and personalities.

Listening to varied recollections of those who emotionally invested in the identity of this neighborhood, one feels a quick glance from people who withstood a threshold of red tape. Within the alternative versions of how the community name came to be, is the one that claims this sign was prepared in anticipation to pay homage to the last artist left in the neighborhood.

It's not quite that.

The Misunderstood Artist

The most common story is the one the LADAD website touches on; Joel Bloom recalls back when Richard Riordan was mayor, Riordan's Special Assistant Tom LaBonge, now Councilman for the 4th District, asked Joel Bloom to confirm the name during an exhibition of LaBonges photography held inside Bloom’s General Store. It was then that LaBonge quickly asked (also not knowing if it was the Artists District or Arts District)  “What IS the name here?”

“This is the Arts District!” shouts Bloom over a din of exhibit-goers. Something got lost in the translation when the signmakers delivered a set that read “Artist District."

At least it was down to two names.
Before any name was used, this area of industrial space socially anchored by Al's Bar was known as the warehouse district. Maybe the the word “artist” once replaced the word “warehouse” as yet another satirical commentary on what was being hidden in those early pirated lofts. A name was never a concern since it represented a urban conformity––until 1981–– when the City Council passed the “Artist in Residence” (AIR) ordinance that opened an experimental decade of music, theater, galleries and installations that cemented the neighborhoods place in Los Angeles. With a growing community, the Los Angeles River Artists and Business Association (LARABA)––co-founded by Drew Lesso who also served as the first president–-was established to “get a fair share” of city services.

Having a name became civic currency when MTA fulfilled a promise made to Little Tokyo by presenting a proposed station at 3rd and Santa Fe, considered part of the Arts District, that was to be called  “Little Tokyo/ 3rd Street Station." Gloria Molina, MTA and Little Tokyo were lobbied by members of LARABA to be included and it was agreed to allow the community of artists to share the station name–– if the community name was approved by everyone.

In Lesso's personal archive, slightly yellow from being stored in his loft, is a note dated May 20, 1993 with the names of Paul Mackley, Jon Peterson, Art Synder, T.K. Nagano. The assignment at the top simply reads “community names.” Bloom, who was also on the early LARABA board and also working with MTA’s outreach program with community members,  recalls, “We were coming up with names . . . like BoHo.”  Nothing stuck until they considered the working nickname, Artist District, that even then was sharing time with Arts District.

“Then there was some painter at a meeting who said musicians weren’t real artists,” recalls Lesso, himself a composer. “That started a whole new argument.” It may have lead to adopting the name, Arts District, so all the arts could be represented.  After the name was agreed on, it was a five year process to be really be recognized as a community via signage, but once done . . .and corrected signs that read Arts District were arranged by Jan Perry's office. . . a community once made of hiding residents joined the neighborhoods around Los Angeles who wear the blue sign like a name tag at a reception.

A few years later, Bloom found an abandoned sign by a trash bin. It read "Artist District." He took it in and displayed the inside his general store that doubles as an Arts District archive–– then later placed it outside the wall on Hewitt facing the official Arts District sign where it hung until last Saturday.

But even now, in a search to document neighborhood signs, secret insider LACityNerd posted an official list that shows both “Artist District” and “Arts District” are on the books. A new map in a kiosk at 2nd and Central in Little Tokyo currently marks this neighborhood as the “Artists District.” And yesterday on the Downtown Discovery DASH, a couple visiting from Pittsburgh asked me if I lived in that "Arty District" they heard so much about.

The sign may be gone, but the names just won't die.

Comments

[kenarch]

Well, at least we aren't being subjected to the name "Artiste" District. That would be just waaaay too OC for me.

I prefer "Arts District", though "Artists District" is more colloquial and is what I generally hear people call it anyhow, regardless of the correct name. "Artists" just rolls off the tongue easier than "Arts" when followed by "District".

Than again, what do I know... I live in the Fashion District. I still hear people calling it the "Garment District". At least it's not BoHo. That would be a BooHoo.